KIMWITU/INLANDER PEOPLE
The indigenous inhabitants of the vast Gorean Equatorial rainforest. Of Earth Bantu stock. Their physical description is tall, long limbs, high cheekbones, dark eyes, black tightly curled hair. Majestic bearing. The various Kimwitu/Inlander nations speak some variant dialect of Inlander Speech, Terran Swahili. Culture ...There were more than two hundred individuals in the great court, both men and women, of high station, and certain commoners with causes to plead. Too, there were guards, and chieftains, and envoys. The robes were generally of animal skin, some marvelously marked. There was much gold and silver jewelry. Anklets and wristlets of feathers were common. The hair of the men and women was worn in a variety of fashions. Too, there were ornate headdresses in evidence, usually of skins and feathers. In the lips of some of the men were brass plugs. Facial tattooing, in various designs, was common. The opulence and color of the court of Bila Huruma was quite impressive. I was sure that it would have shamed the display and pageantry of many Ubars in the north. There were various racial types represented in the court, almost all black. I was the only white present. There were some brown fellows from Bazi, though, and one of the attending physicians was oriental. Even among very similar black types there was variety in hair style and tattooing, and dress, which I took as evidence of cultural or tribal difference. One of the difficulties in the ubarate of Bila Huruma was this sort of racial and tribal heterogeneity. Fortunately most of these people, generally all from the Ushindi region, spoke closely related dialects. ''--from Book 13 Explorers of Gor'' Inlander cultural influence stretches from the High Country of Lake Shaba and the City of Ruins, around the Great Lakes Region of the Rainforest, along the vital trade-routes of the Jungle Rivers, to the fabulous City of Schendi, the tea plantation of Bazi, and extends across Thassa to the trade island of Anango. Although Bila Huruma, the great ubar is of the Rainforest and the intrepid Shaba hailed from Anango, one of the Jungle, the other of a 'civilized' city-state, both shared a common ancestry. The same DNA . Considering themselves proper Goreans, a sizable percentage of city and village-dwellers along the coasts of the Equatorial Belt speak some dialect of Inlander and acknowledge that heritage . And there is a constant torrent of riches which pour out of the Inlander Jungle. Gold, iron, tusk ivory, sapphires and other precious stones . Exotichardwoods and aromatic fragrant woods. Also exported are textiles such as finished bark cloth, exotic hides, feathers, honey, tea, cocoa nuts, crystallized fruits, medicinal plants, spices, artworks of all sorts. The Jungle provides the diminutive giani panther used as house pets and, of course, slave girls. It can be conjectured that coastal and island Inlanders hunt migratingbaleen whales for their ivory and oil. Although traditions naturally vary from region to region over such an extensive area as the vast Rainforest, Inlander Law tends to descend from the royalty, there is little democracy as the Outlanders employ. The majority of the people are ruled by mfalmes, Jungle ubars. Unlike City Goreans, Inlanders tend not to overthrow their mfalmes, in the main the leaders being more protectors than tyrants. The glaring exception being Bila Huruma the Great, who at one time, had more men under arms than any other Ubar on the planet. Their Warrior Caste, the fearsome Askaris, are second to none on Gor. They have been known to fight Kurri to a standstill. The culture produces accomplished ambassadors, scholars and artists as well. builders s of great villages and cities. Trade flourishes under the skilled and greedy hands of their merchants. Inlanders can be tattooed, displaying their village and caste. Although not specifically mentioned in the Chronicles of Gor, as the Kimwitu are of Bantu stock, their athlethics would tend towardrunning and wrestling competitions. When entering a Kimwitu/Inlander village it is customary to do so on the right, thus exposing one's weapon arm, displaying vunerability and therefore peaceful intentions. Of course, as with the general Human population, seven to ten percent of Inlanders are left handed. Language and Communications The Kimwitu/Inlander language is identical to Terran Swahili. *see Inlander Speech *see Inlander Speech Glossary With the exception of the electronic technology of the Sardar, Inlanders possess the most rapid form of communications on the planet.Their coded Drum-Relay system sends a message at mach one, the speed of sound, far outstripping foot or even tarn messengers. A drum signal can cross hundreds of miles in seconds, relayed from sender to receiver then sent on down the line, efficent and elegant. The communications/talking drum is a long, hollow log with a groove cut into it and is played with two long drum sticks. Law Under traditional Inlander Law, the hands of thieves are cut off. Their property is seized, half going to the offended party and the other half to the State. Tax cheats are hung up by their tongues in the market, property siezed, half divided among the village, half rendered to the State.The cheat is allowed to live after his ordeal. Capital Punishment can include being placed on a pole in tharlarion-infested waters and allowed to cling to it until fatigue dooms the convicted to falling and being eaten. Wives who refuse to have sex with their husbands can be sentenced to brothels. Husbands incapable of of asserting their marital rights can be forced to dress as women, to shame them. Askaris convicted of capital crimes are allowed in some case to fall upon a spear, considered an honorable death. Agriculture Inlanders substain themselves from harvesting the bounty of the Rainforest, speculatively, in the form of naturally growing fruits, from bananas to pineapples, wild nuts, berries, mushrooms, and tubers. Domesticated crops are grown in raised bed gardens, to preserve the soil against the incessant rains. The lakes and rivers are fished. There is abundant game to be hunted, from the antelope-like Tabuk to the Tarsk and one suspects even the meat of the serpentine Hith constrictor . Roasted grasshopper could be considered a delicacy, although also consumed raw. Vinters of palm wine. Architecture Inlander building techniques and styles come in a wide range. From the highly advanced stone-building of the artisans of the splendid City of Ruins at Lake Shaba, to the martial minimalism of Bila Huruma's one hundred foot wide seventy feet high dome-shaped Palace of Grass with its interwoven branches and grass, to the meanest little frond-thatch hut sitting by a forgotten Jungle stream. The same holds true of Kimwitu public works, from the simple squares of communal raised bed crop gardens to the extensive Canal Project of the Great Marsh. Clothing and Body Decoration ...The robes were generally of animal skin, some marvelously marked. There was much gold and silver jewelry. Anklets and wristlets of feathers were common. The hair of the men and women was worn in a variety of fashions. Too, there were ornate headdresses in evidence, usually of skins and feathers. In the lips of some of the men were brass plugs. Facial tattooing, in various designs, was common. The opulence and color of the court of Bila Huruma was quite impressive. I was sure that it would have shamed the display and pageantry of many Ubars in the north... ...Even among very similar black types there was variety in hair style and tattooing, and dress, which I took as evidence of cultural or tribal difference. One of the difficulties in the ubarate of Bila Huruma was this sort of racial and tribal heterogeneity.--From Book 13 Explorers of Gor As is clear from the above excerpts, Inlanders dress in a wide range of styles. The dress for males includes loin-clothes and robes. For women robes and dresses. It can be assumed that peasant women would dress in loin-clothes as well. Head-dresses of skins and feathers are popular among both sexes, as are sandals. Aside from many of the robes being of animal skins their is no further discussion of the fabrics the various robes and dresses might be fashioned from. However, since the deep Rianforest hosts extensive wetlands it may be assumed that flax is grown and therefore linen would be a common commodity, as linen is known to exist on Gor. There is also the readily available bark-cloth made from the Pod tree. Silk is spefcifically mentioned as being rare in the Jungle, which is odd as the Inlanders are great traders and silk is a superb hot-weather fabric. One type of garment is known to exist in the Rainforest and that is the feather cloak of the Ubar. ...Behind and about him had swirled a gigantic cloak of yellow and red feathers, from the crested lit and the fruit tindel, brightly plumaged birds of the rain forest. In making such a cloak only two feathers are taken from the breast of each bird. It takes sometimes a hundred years to fashion such a cloak. Naturally it is to be worn only by a Ubar. '''--From Book 13 Explorers of Gor Feathered cloaks of lesser magnificence can be assumed to be wore by other royal members. Body decorations in the form of tattooing is widespread. Apparently lip ornaments are popular as well, as indicated by the excerpt mention of brass lip plugs. Earrings for men on Gor are common although they are a stigma among Free Women of the North and South there is no mention of the custom amongst Inlander Free females. Jewelry includes the entire spectrum of necklaces, rings, armlets, bracelets, and anklets, which all come in precious metals, bone, teeth, and tusk, as well as precious jewels. Slave Husbandry Inlander slave customs differ from Outlander tradition in several ways. '''Kijakazi is singular, vijakazi is plural for kajira and kajirae respectively. ...With the small knife he gashed my left thigh, making upon it a small, strange design. He then took a pow der, orange in color, from the flask and rubbed it into the wound. 'Kneel,' he said. I did so. From the flat box he then took a yellow neck belt, two inches in height, and beaded. It is fastened with a thong, which ties before the throat. 'Say "I am a slave. I am your slave, Master," , he said. 'I am a slave,' I said. 'I am your slave, Master.' He then put the neck belt on me, tying it shut with the thong, with what I knew must be a slave knot. From the box then he took a yellow leather disk, which had a small hole, possibly drilled with a tiny stone implement, near its top. There was writing in some bar baric script upon it. He threaded an end of the thong through the hole and then, using the other end of the thong, too, knotted the disk snugly at the very base of the collar, in the front, below my throat. He looked down at me. 'You have been knife branded,' he said... --from Book 13 Explorers of Gor As illustrated in the above excerpt, vijakazi, or Jungle kajirae, are belt collared/kolar'd, rather than steel banded. The collars are cinched on using a slave knot rather than locked. A knife brand is used rather than hot branding the slaves. Because of the torrid climate, slave girls are allowed to go about bare bosom, wearing only the extremely skimpy and pliant bark cloth skirt.